Laguna Madre Water District Meeting
The meeting with the Laguna Madre Water District in March was a success! The meeting being held was to resolve a mistake made for negotiating a deal with an unauthorized employee of the Laguna Madre Water District to truck our sewage when our main pipe was reported broken. The Director and two Village managers involved with this mistake were in attendance. The unauthorized negotiated price thought to had been a firm deal was to Villagers to have been around $400 a day to last for two and a half days. Since no contract was signed with this unauthorized L.M.W.D. employee, the Laguna Madre Water District found fit to charge our park $23,000 at first and then reduced it to $18000.
Vice President Young was there representing our Village and renegotiated the transaction down to $5000. You did a great job Vice President YOUNG and I hope these three who made the mistake thanked you.

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ACCIDENT Posted 3/11/08

It was reported a man had a seizure while driving this SUV and ended up landing on top of the concrete fence post. The good news luck was on the side of at least four people. The vehicle just missed running up the back of a little convertible driven by an owner, snapped a light pole that missed hitting pedestrians, then avoided plowing into a park model viewed in this picture that supposedly had two children sleeping in it. The driver seemed to receive only minor lacerations and seemed ok.

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OUR VILLAGE "SECURITY " (3/09/08)

This is one of the many attorneys who are advertising for injuries due to security negligence. Plenty of Texas attorneys are advertising.
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Negligent Security
Lawrence M. Simon - New Jersey Negligent Security Attorney
If you or anyone in your family has suffered serious or fatal injuries in a violent crime that could have been prevented with proper security measures, contact a North Jersey premises security liability lawyer at the Law Offices of Lawrence M. Simon.
When a crime is committed in a place such as an apartment building, retail center parking lot, office building, hotel, or other facility that provides security services for its patrons or tenants, a breakdown in the property owner's security system not only can encourage criminal activity, it can also result in the property owner's liability to the crime victim for negligence.
Our New Jersey premises liability attorneys will analyze the circumstances of your injury to see what private patrols, surveillance cameras, and on site monitors did or didn't do to protect you from attack. We work with law enforcement and perform our own investigation to determine whether inadequate security played a role in the events leading up to the crime. We'll also see whether past incidents at this location, or in the surrounding area, should have put the property owner on notice that its building or parking facilities were potentially dangerous to customers or visitors.
Shoppers, apartment tenants, hotel guests, and other citizens should not pay the heavy price of victimization due to a false sense of security fostered by a property owner or private security service. Bergen County negligent security lawyer Lawrence M. Simon will examine the hiring and staffing practices, cameras and lighting, monitoring equipment, and security policies of the property owner in order to establish its liability. We will also make a thorough analysis and presentation of your damages so that every component of your loss is considered for proper compensation.

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Does our Village give the appearance of having licensed security?

1. We advertise on our web page our Village is a gated community.

2. Do the type of uniforms worn by our monitoring staff visually imply their authority as security?

3. Will this perception increase when this monitoring staff is seen screening people entering our gated facility?

4. Will this magnify when this uniformed staff are seen patrolling and enforcing the rules of our facility?

5. When Village management say they have installed security cameras, who is monitoring them? Security?

6. Adding fuel to the fire are the any times those in charge have addressed our monitoring staff as security. Just in our last LIV newsletter, the Security blotter mentioned twice that "Security was reported to".

Are these actions creating the illusion?

I believe most renters who pass through our "security base" would feel we have a real security staff operating. Have we gone in the wrong direction just to save a few bucks? How can we help our non-licensed management with no proven background in managing a security staff keep us out of harms way?

Have management taken the proper steps to insure our Village is as safe as possible? I think not.

It doesn't matter whether we contract with a new license security company or keeps it in house. The ultimate responsiblity of security falls on the owners of our Village.

The information below provides some good practical insight and gives proven procedural guidelines to follow. Being more proactive protecting our Village will payoff in the long run.

Texas Security

In order to work as a security officer for pay in the State of Texas you must be employed by a licensed security services contractor (security company) Your security company must license you as a non-commissioned or commissioned security officer. You are required to be registered with the state regulatory agency- The Texas Department of Public Safety-Private Security Bureau. Even if you are classified as in-house security and work for no one other than your employer, this regulation still applies to you. The private employer that you work for must have a “Letter of Authority” issued to a “Private Business” and they will still license you with the above listed regulatory agency. Same as if you were working for a Security Company.

The most critical errors made when managing a security program?
A major error is the failure of owners and managers to effectively and consistently supervise the security program. This results in gradual deterioration of the program and creates additional and significant liability issues, frequently exceeding the original liability risk.
A second crucial error is providing the illusion of security that does not in fact exist. One illusion is accomplished by overstating verbally or visually the security measures in effect and the use of dummy or non-operable equipment such as CCTV cameras.
What is our liability if we have a management company who is responsible for association matters?
While a management company may be responsible for managing your facility, the ultimate responsibility for premises liability issues cannot be transferred to the management company. The decision in Rockwell vs. Sun Harbor Budget Suites, 925 P.2d 1175 (Nevada 1996) held that the property owner could outsource the performance of security related tasks but not the ultimate responsibility for providing a reasonably safe and security housing environment.
Whose Job Is It ?
Unfortunately, managers believe that by contracting with a security service provider, they are reducing or even eliminating their liability for providing adequate security. In Dupree v. Piggly Wiggly Shop Rite Food, Inc., (Texas, 1952), the court found that the usual independent contractor relationship would not relieve property owners and managers from liability because they had a nontransferable duty to provide a safe facility environment.
No matter what training our Management has done with our staff, the following should be followed.
1. Additional training should include patrol techniques and procedures, visitor and vehicle access control, crime prevention, incident report preparation, physical security equipment and inspections, hazardous material response, company and property policies, fire prevention and suppression, use of force, basic emergency first aid procedures, reporting incidents to emergency services, and interpersonal relations specifically designed to meet the requirements of the property. Sounds a little complicated? It is and training should be done regularly.
2. Have A Security Audit. The local police or independent security agencies will often conduct a security audit of the premises, pointing out potential areas of weakness. The association facility that has such an audit performed and then complies with the recommendations made is in a good position, from a liability standpoint; if anyone later claims that an injury or theft resulted from a lack of security precautions. The audit demonstrates due diligence on the part of the association. These audits are often conducted free of charge, but are well worth any fee that may be required.
3. Do not allow management to decide what adequate performance is. It is similar to allowing employees to set their own performance standards and evaluations. It should be our Board’s responsibility to identify minimum performance standards and continually evaluate and demand compliance with these identified standards.

What are the actions necessary to develop a comprehensive security protection program for the housing association?
The security protection program is developed in the following manner:
A risk assessment is conducted to identify the potential crime factors affecting the property and the neighborhood.
Based on the collection of this information, appropriate countermeasures are recommended to the governing body of the association.
A business decision is made on the countermeasures to be adopted and the priority of their implementation.
Strategies are developed for the implementation and enforcement of association security policies and procedures.

The Benefits of Quality
The cost of providing adequate security services can be recovered in often overlooked ways. Obviously, the most significant, but unquantifiable, offset is a reduction in the costs of defending civil actions by proving the level of security was adequate for the circumstances. The cost of lawsuit prevention is extremely difficult to identify on a profit and loss statement. However, over time, it can be measured in some degree by the reduction of legal expenses.
If the Association has instituted reasonable and appropriate security measures, what are the chances for success when defending a negligent security claim?
In their study, Bates and Groussman reported that the defendant was successful in over 52 percent of the cases where reasonable and appropriate security measures were in effect.

The intent for this article is to merely address the possible liabilities being created and give the information found to put our Village in a better position. If anyone wishes to add to this concern please leave a comment.

The majority of the information above was obtained from Blake & Associates, Inc.
A full service firm specializing in security consulting and investigative support to business management and the legal profession.

Statewide Patrol, Inc. also was used.

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ORIENTATION Posted Friday 3/07/08

There was a Director’s Orientation meeting at 2pm today. It was held to openly show owners the different powers we have relinquished to our elected Board of Directors. It was chaired by Martha Nell and was a positive success. The attendance could have been a little larger but I believe that was caused by the time of day. I think most of the veteran directors attended. I believe this meeting was good for all and am happy to see a positive proactive event happen. Thank you Board of Directors. Read more on this article...

Inspiring Post 3/05/08

Wednesday morning I did my usual routine of doing my laundry at the Activity Center. I was burning time walking through our Recreation Hall and noticed a bunch of workers shoveling and racking dirt at hole #10 on the golf course. This was before 8 am! I came home after doing my laundry, shopping at Walmart, and getting gas. To my surprise they were behind my house at hole #15 shoveling and racking dirt. These hard workers were owners who had volunteered their time and physical muscle to improve our golf course, which in turn improves our Village, which in turn improves our pride to live here.
These golf course improvements have not happened by chance or by mere after thought. They occurred because the people concerned with improving the beauty and quality of the amenities here find they need to sometimes do things themselves if the job is to get done. These are special people who demonstrate just how great our Village is. Words just can’t describe it. I’m inspired.
To note: these improvements have not cost the owners. Fund raisers paid for the materials used. To my knowledge a generous contribution by Ione Holeman paid for hole #15.
This should be applauded at our next Coffee W/Directors.

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NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T Posted 3/4/08

For 2007 LIV posted a $410,513 income increase over 2006. . That normally would seem great except if you subtract the $332,800 sewer assessment and $123,000 condo fee increase for final six months this year, our Aramark management team seemed to actually lose our Village $45,287 in income for 2007. This is after a $29,000 increase for the Centers (Village Grill, Golf Course, Rental Office, Laundry, and Newsletter). It just appears that Aramark management generated quite a bit less income
for 2007. If the Centers are not the cause for this decrease, what is?
NOTE: In response to the first comment on this article, if I'm incorrect, I will post the corrections with an apology. By no means am I ridiculing Mary Steffensen our treasurer, to whom I also think is doing a fantastic job. I just feel we pay a lot to Aramark to generate income for our Village along with reducing our expenses and think owners should be aware of these figures and their performance. Read more on this article...

A TIDBIT Posted 3/4/08

During our annual board meeting the general manager made a 30 minute show about himself and three others as being "the Village's 7 dollar management team." He said this is what you pay each month out of your condo fees for their services. I am still mystified. One must ask how can these four whom earn a minimum of $ 175,000 a year ( about one third the total of employees salaries we pay for) cost only $7 a month out of our condo fees? New kind of math?

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The winners

Well, the election is over and the winners are Ed McBride, Rick Hansen, Jim Peterson, and Martha Nell Dotson. Congratulations to the winners and special thanks to the others. It is not easy to explain ones self to a large group. There’s a lot of important things to talk about but it will have to wait until later.
Congratulations to Dennis Sullivan our new President and Dick Young the new Vice President. Mary Steffensen and Leroy Mulch have retained their positions. Read more on this article...

IT IS ELECTION TIME

02/27/07 Directors Meeting

The meeting started out this time with everyone pledging allegiance to a real flag. Richard Hansen began with questioning the wording of a sidewalk repair-replacement issue. Pat Burke answered with what the board was aware of. Larry D. made a comment. I believe Mr. Hansen argued one thing was said and another thing was done.

Larry D. went through the manager’s report. He said there was $45, 000 left to collect in outstanding fees. He described a new program for the safety meetings that he said are done once a week. They were using a slip and trip training program that's taking up about one hour of the employees work time three times a week so they can learn the best ways not to trip or slip. In closing Larry D. wanted to thank the members of the Board who were leaving.

Armando gave his as usual every job is completed in two hours report

Les Heier apologized about the Grill running out of chicken by six o’clock last Wednesday at Chicken Night. He implied theft as being the cause. Pat Burke came up with “there were reports” of people filling bags and plates in their pocket books. One director said people just ate a whole lot. It was noted our management ordered the right amount of chicken for the number of tickets sold. I guess nobody check the cooler to see if the chicken to be cooked was there.

Leroy Mulch got the Board's approval of the minutes.

Mary Steffensen corrected Larry D. that there was $73,000 in outstanding monies left to be collected. She went into the figures for the park and finalized with the Villages profit and loss report. . Pat Burke got the Board to approve the report

Dennis S. said the Golf Committee made over $20,000 in a fundraiser. This committee and the people associated have done a great job this year and should be applauded. Great Job!!!!

Mary S. said the pool committee is getting several lounges repaired. She also talked about the use of wrist bans from May-Sept. and possible procedural changes. She said there were 3,300 renters that used our pool last year. We're looking at an average of about 165 non-owners using our pools per day if their stayed here was a week. Any way you look at it, the owners will be again hard pressed to use their own pool area this May-Sept.

Pat Burke brought up the issue of Laguna Madre Water District's $23,000 charge for transporting our sewage 2.5 days (Friday July 13th- Sun July 15th) when our sewer line broke. She freely admitted they made just a verbal hauling agreement with an employee of the Laguna Madre Water District who had no authority. She once again made the comment that this mess was possibly caused by someone else. To clarify, that someone else is an owner who went to the LMWD office, presented herself as an LIV resident, and asked for permission to inquire on the particulars towards the transporting of the Villages sewage. That's all this person did and it happened on Tuesday July 17th, two days after this so called agreement had ended. This owner had absolutely nothing to do with the mess created by those in charge and had every right to make inquiries. One should question why didn't the people in charge asked this LMWD employee if he had authority to make any agreement or follow up a verbal with a written agreement during the time area of the agreement. Was some simple business common sense forgotten with Village owners money involved. If anyone knows about mistakes, I do. We all can make mistakes. Just admit them and move on and not play the a “may have” game. It ended with Pat B. will try to get them to settle for what LIV paid to have the Big Red Truck do for over 50 days. That was to truck our sewage for $2000 a day.

Larry D. and Pat B. brought up the issue of buying a new copier. After forty minutes it was left tabled for further debate.

Larry D. proposed to put all records on CD’s. The Board liked that idea but tabled it for review.

Mary S. proposed her final procedures for an asset relocation list. The Board approved it.

Variances came up and boy was that a ring around the rosy. Point of fact the board worked hard to get it right and came up with what I believe was the correct solution. Good job Board members. I believe it ended with omitting the word "rear" in describing deck area for a building code.

New business started out with wanting to sign up a new attorney Aaron Garcia to be our new repo man for foreclosures. Have you paid your dues?

A request was asked and approved to have the Port Isabel junior/senior Prom here in our lovely Village. Estimates are over 350 people will attend. This will be on May 10th from 7pm till 11pm. Expect to stay at home this night owners.

Finally Larry D. inquired if it was legal for management to purchase foreclosure property before it’s foreclosed on. What would your answer be?

I do wish to compliment Pat Burke for the change which occurred in asking the attending owners for questions and comments during the meeting for most of the subjects that were brought up. It was enlightening.

Meet the Candidates

We had more people than chairs at the “Meet the Candidates Forum” Monday night. The candidates at the podium were Martha Nell Dodson, Richard Hansen, myself, Virginia Martin, Ed McBride, James Peterson, Rita Priest, and Bud Sherry. There is one candidate giving out his flyer's named Ronnie Gonzalez who will be nominated from the floor on Saturday. When was the last time there was more than twice as many candidates running than positions needed? I believe this large turnout of both concerned owners running and concerned owners’ listening is the start of a beautiful thing. CHANGE!!!
Since I am running I will hold my opinions on the candidates except for one Ed McBride, who seemed to have done the best job of expressing himself. That said, I do wish to give special thanks to Mary Steffensen for the great job she did as curator of the meeting. Good luck to all and we’ll see what happens this Saturday.

02/20/08 Coffee with the Directors

Our Coffee with the Directors meeting started with Pledging Allegiance without a flag to pledge to. Give this one to management. You should have seen the look our G.M. Larry D. gave Les and Armando. The suggestion box had a thank you to The Church of Christ. The second was a comment about anger control and arrest histories of Candidates. Again pool cleanliness and mold was brought up, not once but twice. Someone wanted us to change the parking signs which few people obey located in front of the activity center from 5pm to 7pm. The reason was so they won’t have to walk so far to get their mail. That was it for what was in the suggestion box. I witnessed an interesting thing before the meeting. One of our Directors asked what is that box, referring to the suggestion box. This Director had no clue we even had a box for our suggestions. Oh well.

Larry D. said we had someone vandalizing the fountain in our pool area.

Selba Campbell had asked Peter Zavaletta, a person running for District Attorney in Cameron county to join our meeting and was told he could not talk to people during the meeting. Selba brought up that Port Isabel’s Joe Vega told her he was going to annex Long Island Village as his first newly elected action.

Martha Nell gave thanks to everyone for their support at the health fair.

Rick Henson asked the board to disclose the names of who writes their suggestions since the Directors have access to the knowledge.

Vivian, who heads the 7am pool exercise group, made a strong statement on her displeasure about the continuing inconsistency of the pools and spas water.

Mr. Price from lot 744 asked why not give a check list to the employee doing the pools.

Larry D. said that they are starting a new person at 3:30 am to do the pools this week.

The next person asked why we don’t heat the outdoor pool.

Jim Peterson said there was mold in the pool and bath showers.

A Mr. Hansen asked about getting the year end financials.

Pat Burke closed the meeting by laying the ground work for the “meet the candidates” meeting.

The Workshop

The workshop was a little interesting. It started with Mary S. wanted an asset removal list from management. She basically wanted the Board to review what is to be removed or moved. Interesting to note that our Board does not have an asset list of items $700 and under. These are kept in Aramark's inventory system. This should amount to a tidy sum.

Dennis Sullivan commented on the tremendous progress happening on the golf course.

Then there came the issue on variances. It seemed Pat Burke was upset that they were even discussing a variance since they just finalized the changes in the building codes. She wanted say no to the variance or change the code. Dennis S. and Dick Y. disagreed and it ended there. Larry D. who enforces the codes made some comments.

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Jan. 16th, 2008

The Coffee with the Directors started out with a two page suggestion written by the members of the Golf committee. They were asking for some of the $10,000 unused funds allocated by the board for a cancelled project. The seven items they proposed made a lot of sense to me. Pat Burke said this would be discussed at the workshop meeting. She went on to explained who was on the golf committee and things they had accomplished. She explained our lawyer could not advise us of L.I.V.'s liability on letting a volunteer operate our heavy equipment.
Our Board President changed the subject to talk about how our postal carrier was treated by some stupid, self-centered idiot.
Leroy Mulch said L.I.V.'s new building rules packets are out.
Pat Burke mentioned the two openings on the Bridge Board.
Selba Campbell commented on voting registration.
Judy Voss asked about L.I.V.'s Incorporation and received basically no answer.
Virginia Martin went through the D&E schedule.
An owner wanted to know why nobody asked him or any of his neighbors their opinions and wishes about filling a pond next to their homes at hole #6 on the golf course. Our GM said it's being filled because it overflows and floods when it rains. Larry advised him to ask someone on the golf committee. This owner replied he is on the Golf committee and no one on the committee was told anything about it. Larry D. appeared not to know what to say.
Gloria Fish said nobody asked her about the ugly retaining walls that were put in the pond behind her home which seemed to have driven off all the beautiful birds. Larry D. appeared not to know what to say.
Another owner said he lives here all year and has never seen that pond flood at hole #6.
The same golf committee member who read the two page suggestion at the beginning of the meeting said there's only one solution to this pond issue, deepen this pond instead of filling it.
Larry said the person who has our laundry contract got a call from some owner telling him how to run his business. He rattle on about how good this person is and how he worked with LIV through our sewer situation. He didn't mention the large $2300 loss posted in our November LIV Newsletter for the laundry. This was a $5800 difference from November 2006 and should have had nothing to do with our sewer problem which was solved September 3rd.
Mary Lou Dotson talked about the health fair on February 13.
Vivian Contos said the pools are filthy. She complained about hot tubs not working.
Larry D. said someone in the park should run for the board of directors since L.I.V.s relationship with them is so bad. Someone should tell our G.M. this happens when you basically tell them they're idiots and don't know what they're talking about. Especially when they were doing us a favor by having a representative here to explain the effluent water savings and procedures.
The Board said that our assessment has paid off the loan that was taken out for the sewer problem and $41,000 balance remains. It would be interesting to ask what we paid in interest and penalties for early payoff for this loan.
The workshop that followed the board meeting. To me, Pat Burke seemed impolite to an owner who wanted them to use the microphone so people could hear what was being said. There was loud noises being made in the Rec. Hall that did make hearing difficult.
Dennis Sullivan discussed the golf issue. After different things were discussed, Dennis asked if everything could be done at once. Larry D. explained all but two were in his five year plan. When Larry D. started to explain the liability aspect of volunteers, Pat Burke walked over and grabbed his mike and stop him right there.
Mary Steffensen discussed the structure of a park contingency fund. This fund would be used for large repairs due to storms or wear. Some of these examples are hurricanes, roads, bridge, sewer. It ended with more issues to be discussed.

Jan. 23, 2008

The Board of Directors meeting started with the resignation of Don Nixon.
An owner living at lot #708 was unhappy about the 2008 budget was not available to the owners for review.
Larry, Amando, and Les went through their lengthy fines, repairs, and food results.
Martha Nell complained that Les turned down for her workers getting food and beverages at the health fair. Les denied that he turned her down.
Virginia Martin discussed D& E.
Pat Burke talked a little about the proposed construction o Freeland's land.
Dennis Sullivan asked to be refunded for the $500 he paid out of his pocket to finish a golf project. The Board agreed to $250.
Dennis requested the board to figure out a way to use this heavy equipment volunteer to save the park $800 a day. The work needed may take over a month to complete. It was tough to hear, by I believe they passed something.
Pat Burke graciously gave the owners of L.I.V. twenty minutes to ask questions about the undisclosed budget. Several people asked questions.
One lady asked for the pool to be cleaned and Pat Burke told at her to fill out a work request order. Read more on this article...

POSTED 11/04/07
I hope you weren’t trying to leave or enter the park around 4:30 today. Our swing bridge popped a cable and was stuck opened. It’s Sunday afternoon and something in need of a repair usually means trouble.
The good news was our members of the Bridge Board was fixing it. From what I could see while being stranded on the P.I. side, they worked smart. In quick order the swing bridge was operating. Hats off to them!!! They deserve a mighty big THANKYOU. Read more on this article...

A WORKER IS WACKED

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POSTED 11/02/07
Ring one up again for our General Manager. He fired a good golf course worker. Our G.M. told him and others that he was being replaced. Quite a few people were upset about this, so much so that they wanted to have a special meeting with the Board of Directors. Our Board President said that this was against our By-Laws and she would not call such a meeting.
All summer long our management said they couldn’t find people to work. They used it as their excuse why things around the Village were not getting done.
What is really being said around P.I and S.P.I. is our management’s reputation towards their treatment of workers is the real reason why they have a hard time hiring people.
It was also said this person was being fired because L.I.V. couldn’t afford keeping him on the payroll. I guess that means they’re not paying the person replacing him. Someone here is a liar-liar-pants on fire.
It will be interesting to see what different story our G.M. and Board President come up with next. Read more on this article...

"Something Smells"

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POSTED 8/26/07 An e-mail from a Village owner.

It's Saturday afternoon, and I just got back from visiting the area at South Point where our sewer pipe emerges from under the Intercoastal and joins the pipe to the treatment plant. It's from this site that the new pipe will be pushed through to our village. The sections of pipe were there and that's all---no installation equipment, no installers, NO ACTIVITY. At the last sewer pipe meeting the manager told us that permission to lay the pipe was forthcoming, he had made the necessary arrangements at South Point, and the job would start this past Wednesday. It seems that before the pipe can be pushed through, the sections have to be laid out and welded together. He told us he had made the arrangements to have the needed space cleared.
The story is ---- we have to rely on hearsay here because neither the board nor the manager have seen fit to give out any information for two weeks---- The story goes, the pipe arrived, the space was not cleared, and everything was left as I found it this afternoon. If the story is correct, it's just the latest in a long line of delays and screw-ups that have dragged out this situation far longer than one could reasonably expect. And the seventy-eight dollar an hour honey wagon rolls on 24 hours a day, and the bank balance???? But heck!! It's only money. When this $200,000 is gone, the board will borrow again.
At the same sewer meeting the manager told us he couldn't promise, but he didn't think there would be an assessment for this. Sure thing!! When pigs fly!! If the screw-ups continue, you'd better hold your breath before you open the bill. Read more on this article...

Hurricane Dean update

POSTED 8/22/07
We missed this monster hurricane. It was only by luck. We will be getting a little rain and that's it. Next time we may not be so lucky.

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Hurricane Dean update

POSTED 8/21/07
Since the predicted path of Dean is to land far south of SPI, the mandatory evacuation has been put on hold. There's a slight chance Dean could change directions.

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Hurricane Dean update

POSTED 8/20/07
It appears that hurricane Dean is going to hit far south of LIV. This may give us rain and some tropical storm winds, but hopefully little destruction.

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Hurricane Dean

POSTED 8/19/07
Hurricane Dean is the spotlighted show this week. Cameron County has issued a mandatory high profile vehicle evacuation and a voluntary resident evacuation. County officials are talking about a three story high water possibility.
Nothing has been done here at the park yet. Dean is projected to reach us Wednesday night, three days from now.

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Passing the buck

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POSTED 8/11/07
While LIV’s sewer pipe has had most of our attention, the management is attempting to spend owner’s money in another way. Management wants LIV to lease pool monitoring systems from Berry Pool & Supplies for our outdoor and indoor pools. This system adds several chemicals as needed automatically.
This is being proposed to our Board because our management has shown for the last eight months they are incapable of maintaining our pools.
The cost
$ 1000.00. A one time installation for two digital wireless monitoring units for pools only.
$ 9480.00 + Tax Annual lease contract for the pools only
Our three spas are not included yet, but after the 30 day trial they probably will be included in the price.

What LIV receives
Berry Pools will provide LIV a 30 day chemical reading list at 2 hr intervals.
Berry Pools will do a one time weekly visit to check on their monitoring system.
System adjusts feeding of several chemicals.
A 12 month lease with no ownership of the equipment.
LIV obligation to pay for any neglect or accidents to the Berry Pool's monitoring equipment

What LIV still pays for
All the chemicals used / daily pool vacuum / side tile cleaning / deck cleaning / trash removal / bathroom cleanup / back washing the filters / emptying the skimmer baskets / skimming pool water for bugs and debris / removal of the live and dead critters foound in the water / removing poop when found and water replacement / power washing / maintaining the water levels / algae removal / filter maintenance /shocking the pool / pump maintenance / plumbing maintenance / etc.
Basically "everything" that was done as before except for a 5 minute chemical water test and when necessary, a 15 minute chemical treatment of the water.

You be the judge.
Many times our General Manager has said he was a certified pool operator. He has even flashed his card on occasions. L.I.V. provided six to ten Aramark employees what management called an extensive pool training course. They all supposedly passed this uncertified course which seems now a waste.
One should ask if this system is necessary with such training, experience, and credentials.
Berry Pools won’t guarantee the elimination of skin irritations.
When management talks our Board into this outsourcing, L.I.V. residents will be spending $9480 yearly to do management's 20 minute a day job.

Suggestions
Have our pool filtration system checked to see if the flow meters show the water is being filtered correctly. I would have a qualified person do this and not our unqualified management.
If our Board has to spend L.I.V's money, do the above suggestion and install just one system to our indoor pool this year. The indoor pool will be used the most by the owners this year. Then use the difference to fix the outdoor pool bottom and buy new pool furniture..

I believe that this system is not a bad idea or product, but I feel we need to start fixing and maintaining the things we have before spending money on new items to cover our management's inabilities and laziness. Especially $10,000 a year worth. Read more on this article...

RAINBOW FOR ONE, POT OF GOLD FOR ANOTHER

pp

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POSTED 7/30/07
I received my LIV newsletter and read something interesting. In Mary Steffensen's front page column was an update about our current sewage problem. She wrote that she was told an agreement was made with the Laguna Water District to truck our waste out starting on Fri. July 13th and would end on Mon. July 16th. This being the case, why would our Aramark management want to negotiate their hauling agreement with LMWD on Tues. July 17th, a day after they stopped using them?
In this day and age would any average manager or attorney accept a handshake as being a solid agreement from a person who they didn't know personally, especially when they're representing large sums of other peoples money. This handshake was considered by our manager and Board President as being a solid agreement from a person who wasn't authorized to make such an agreement.
It should be asked why they did not take immediate action to follow up this handshake agreement with a written agreement with the L.M.W.D. that same Friday afternoon, or at least make arrangements for an emergency meeting with the LMWD that following Saturday or Monday? It was advailable to them.
Most people feel making a decision involving thousands of dollars of other people’s money, a handshake just doesn't cut it.
I believe after the fifth day of our sewer pipe problem, our management finally realized their error. They found an unsuspecting concerned LIV owner to point blame who was asking the Water District questions as a concerned owner. This person did not represent herself as a L.I.V. representative. You might note it was all conjecture our Management and Board expressed and not the facts.
We need to ask why our management and Board President didn't chose to pursue a written agreement. Is there some intelligent reason for this inaction?

Why Aramark didn't immediately send us a qualified professional to instantly point us in the right direction with our sewage problem? What we got instead was management fumbling about while we LIV owners were paying through the nose to truck our poop out.
L.I.V. pays a lot for what Aramark calls "support".
It seems to me that if Aramark would have put the same effort into our sewer problem as their security division and legal departments supposedly gave our Board in selling us on reasons why their management team should run our unlicensed security staff, we might be using our toilets by now. Could one reason be money? Aramark wouldn't make a dime off this big LIV shitty problem while thousands of dollars will be made off running a staff of unqualified and unlicensed security want-a-bees? It kinda makes you wonder what's important here. Was there an attempt even made to ask Aramark for qualified help? Where's Aramark's effort?
I know it's easy for anyone to second guess things, but come on, this whole issue stinks.
This sewer problem should also set an example of showing how desperately we need to focus on forming a long term infrastructure reserve plan. Borrowing this $200,000 for our sewer repair shows that this park has spent all and saved not. Read more on this article...

Our Security Issue

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POSTED 7/28/07
Security at LIV has been an interesting subject this year. Management told everyone for almost a year that they could get a security license. Management gave numerous excuses to our Board when questioned about their progress obtaining it. The truth is management did not qualified to get a Security License in the state of Texas.
This charade came to an end when a mysterious and still undiscriptive $20,000 out of state charge became managements "way out" not to obtain a Texas security license.

Even without a license, management still wanted to run what is now best described as a patrol staff and get paid at this time more money. Certain members of the Board are currently trying to persuade LIV owners that a non-security staff ran by our unlicensed management will be good for them and for their park.
The bottom line is the state of Texas did not qualifiy our management to manage a staff for security. Every LIV visitor will have the perception of a " security " staff. There is a tremendous possible liability being started here which screams for mega lawsuit.
Owners should question deeper why our management didn't acquire a security license.

Pat Burke's insert in our Village newsletter on security vs. non security choices struck me as being totally bias. She seemed to have displayed little neutrality and even less information. The choice she gave frankly was; do you want to pay $25,000 more for real licensed security when an unlicensed and unqualified staff will serve you just as well.

Our Board President knocked our current security company because they hired someone who stoled and implied this should solve such hiring problems. She did not mention Aramark's hiring track record though. I recall our Village being involved in a rape lawsuit. I understand the person charged for this rape was a Aramark employee.
Our Board President said our current security company had proposed a rate hike, but didn't disclose the amount. Was that increase amount $10 or $10,000?
Our President also said Aramark filed for a Level 1 security license. I believe this may show that neither Pat Burke or management knew what license Aramark actually needed. Information I received said a Level 1 is the training course available to security license applicants. Class B License is what should be obtained by Aramark.
Finally, Pat Burke said there were "various" reasons why Aramark will not be getting a Texas security license. Only one reason was expressed and without much clarity. I would like to know these other reasons and an explanation about this $20,000 charge.

It would be a pleasant change to just be told all the facts about an issue instead of being force fed certain pieces of information. There are things not being said about this security issue that needs to be addressed before the owners should try to make any final decisions that may put our beautiful Village in harms way.
I'm just a person sharing worried concerns. Read more on this article...